"My whole ambition in life is to set in motion machinery which will bring noble ideas to the door of everybody, and then let men and women settle their own fate.Let them know what our forefathers as well as other nations have thought on the most momentous questions of life. We are to put the chemicals together; the crystallization will be done by nature according to her laws. Keep the motto before you "ELEVATION OF THE MASSES WITHOUT INJURING THEIR RELIGION”
- SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Leaf – Counters

The whole world reads Bibles, Vedas, and Korans; but they
are all only words, syntax, etymology, philology, and the dry bones of
religion. The teacher who deals too much in words and allows the mind to be
carried away by the force of words loses the spirit. It is the knowledge of the
spirit of the scriptures alone that constitutes the true religious teacher. The
network of the words of the scriptures is life a huge forest in which the human
mind often loses itself and finds no way out.

Ramakrishna used to tell a story of some men who went into a
mango orchard and busied themselves in counting the leaves, the twigs, and the
branches, examining their color, comparing their size, and noting down
everything most carefully, and then got up a learned discussion on each of
these topics, which were undoubtedly highly interesting to them. But one of the
them, more sensible then the others, did not care for all these things, and
instead thereof, began to eat the mango fruit. And was he not wise? So leave
this counting of leaves and twigs and note taking to others. This kind of work
has its proper place, but not here in the spiritual domain. You never see a strong
spiritual man among the “ leaf – counters “.